Sektormedia: Aaron's Brain

Robert Kahn on Net Neutrality

One of the original founders of the internet and creator of TCP, Robert Kahn, discusses network neutrality.

Lessig on Net Neutrality

The man, the myth, the legend. Larry has a great piece on network neutrality. It's more than worth the quick read. Here's his summation, but check out the rest.

Those who oppose network-neutrality regulation should also oppose this regulation of last-mile broadband's most important competitor. Municipal competition won't kill commercial broadband any more than Linux has killed Windows. Yet it could change the business model of last-mile broadband, just as Linux has changed the business model of Microsoft. If there's going to be a Linux-like miracle to counteract innovation-threatening broadband business models, then, at a minimum, miracles must not be a crime.

Larry Lessig on Net Neutrality.

The Daily Show: Net Neutrality

Ask the internet if it's a dumptruck. Go ahead, do it!!

'DRM' Protects Downloads, But Does It Stifle Innovation?

Of course it does, it also puts the boot on the throat of the consumer and stifles choice, innovation, and creativity. The following is a conversation between Fritz Attaway and Wendy Seltzer.

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Consumers now have the ability to buy digital versions of music and movies from a vast (and growing) online catalog. But that convenience has come at a price: Most of the digital content is packaged with technology called digital rights management, or DRM, a sort of copy protection that limits what users can do with the material.

The music and movie industries defend DRM as a means of protecting artists and publishers -- without it, they say, it would be too easy for users to abuse copyrights by illegally swapping files over the Internet. They also argue that without DRM technologies, publishers wouldn't have been willing to distribute their content in online music and video stores, such as Apple's iTunes.

But some consumer advocates argue that DRM often goes too far, treating customers as would-be criminals and putting burdensome restrictions on what they can do with music and movies that were legally purchased. (ITunes, for instance, allows users to burn music to an unlimited number of CDs, but limits the number of computers on which users can play purchased music.)

The Online Journal asked Fritz Attaway, a senior executive with the Motion Picture Association of America, to debate the issue over email with Wendy Seltzer, a law professor who specializes in intellectual property and First Amendment issues. Their exchange is below.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115047057428882434-1V_FEK_CJelMfytdST8APRW7cZw_20060720.html

Open Source Economics

A great article and well worth the read. Not particularly in response to Bill Gates comments that Creative Commons is disguised communism but does refute the premise.

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I read something in one of the comments for an OSNews posting a couple weeks ago that sent me thinking. It wasn't an original or profound thought. In fact, it's a rather commonly-held opinion that happens to be quite misguided. It's an opinion summed up by the "open source = communist" meme that gets thrown around in thousands of flamewars all over the internet. In this essay, I will explore why this idea is wrong and demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of economics.

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=8054